From the station of Zagathai we travelled directly north, and our attendants began to pilfer largely from us, because we took too little heed of our property, but experience at length taught us wisdom. At length we reached the bounds of this province, which is fortified by a deep ditch, from sea to sea[1]. Immediately beyond this ditch, we came to the station to which our conductors belonged, where all the inhabitants seemed to be infected with leprosy; and certain base people are placed here to receive the tribute from all who come for salt from the salt pits formerly mentioned. We were told that we should have to travel fifteen days farther before meeting with any other inhabitants. With these people we drank cosmos, and we presented them in return with a basket of fruits and biscuit; and they gave us eight oxen and a goat, and a vast number of bladders full of milk, to serve as provision during our long journey. But by changing our oxen, we were enabled in ten days to attain the next station, and through the whole way we only found water in some ditches, dug on purpose, in the vallies, and in two small rivers. From leaving the province of Casaria, we traveled directly eastwards, having the sea of Azoph on our right hand, and a vast desert on the north, which, in some places, is twenty days journey in breadth, without mountain, tree, or even stone; but it is all excellent pasture. In this waste the Comani, called Capchat[2], used to feed their cattle. The Germans called these people Valani, and the province Valania; but Isidore terms the whole country, from the Tanais, along the Paulus Maeotis, Alania. This great extent would require a journey of two months, from one end to the other, even if a man were to travel post as fast as the Tartars usually ride, and was entirely inhabited by the Capchat Comanians; who likewise possessed the country between the Tanais, which divides Europe from Asia, and the river Edil or Volga, which is a long ten days journey. To the north of this province of Comania Russia is situate, which is all over full of wood, and reaches from the north of Poland and Hungary, all the way to the Tanais or Don. This country has been all wasted by the Tartars, and is even yet often plundered by them.
[1] From this circumstance it is obvious, that the journey had been hitherto confined to Casaria, or the Crimea, and that he had now reached the lines or isthmus of Precop.--E.
[2] In the English translation of Hakluyt, this word is changed to Capthak, and in the collection of Harris to Capthai; it is probably the Kiptschak of the Russians.--E.
The Tartars prefer the Saracens to the Russians, because the latter are Christians: and when the Russians are unable to satisfy their demands for gold and silver, they drive them and their children in multitudes into the desert, where they constrain them to tend their flocks and herds. Beyond Russia is the country of Prussia, which the Teutonic knights have lately subdued, and they might easily win Russia likewise, if they so inclined; for if the Tartars were to learn that the sovereign Pontiff had proclaimed a crusade against them, they would all flee into their solitudes.
SECTION XV.
Of our Distresses, and of the Comanian funerals.
In our journey eastwards we saw nothing but the earth and sky, having sometimes the sea of Tanais within sight on our right hand, and sometimes we saw the sepulchres in which the Comanians used to bury their dead, at the distance of a league or two from the line of our journey. So long as we travelled in the desert, matters were tolerably well with us, but I cannot sufficiently express the irksome and tedious plagues and troubles we had to encounter in the dwellings of the Tartars; for our guide insisted upon us making presents to every one of the Tartar captains, which we were utterly unable to afford, and we were eight persons in all, continually using our provisions, as the three Tartars who accompanied us insisted that we should feed them; and the flesh which had been given us was by no means sufficient, and we could not get any to buy. While we sat under the shadow of our carts to shelter us from the extreme heat of the sun, they would intrude into our company, and even tread upon us, that they might see what we had; and when they had to ease nature, would hardly withdraw a few yards distance, shamelessly talking to us the whole lime. What distressed me most of all, was when I wished to address them upon religious subjects, my foolish interpreter used to say, "You shall not make me a preacher, and I neither will nor can rehearse these words." Nay, after I began to acquire some little knowledge of their language, I found, when I spoke one thing, he would say quite differently, whatever chanced to come uppermost in his senseless mind. Thus, seeing the danger I might incur in speaking by so faithless an interpreter, I resolved rather to be silent.
We thus journeyed on from station to station, till at length a few days before the festival of Mary Magdalen, 22d July, we arrived on the banks of the mighty river Tanais or Don, which divides Europe from Asia. At this place Baatu and Sartach had established a station of Russians on the eastern bank of the river, on purpose to transport merchants and messengers across. They ferried us over in the first place, and then our carts; and their boats were so small that they were obliged to use two boats tied together for one cart, putting a wheel into each. In this place our guides acted most foolishly; for believing that the Russians would provide us with horses and oxen, they sent back those we had from the western side of the river, to their masters. But when relays were demanded from the Russians, they alleged that they had a privilege from Baatu, exempting them from all services except those belonging to the ferry, and for which they were even accustomed to receive considerable rewards from such merchants as passed that way. We were, therefore, constrained to remain three days in this place. The first day they gave us a large fresh fish[1]. The second day the magistrate of the village gathered from every house for us, and presented us with rye-bread and some flesh. And the third day they gave us dried fish, of which they have great abundance.
[1] In the Latin this fish is named Barbatus, which both Hakluyt and Harris have translated Turbot, a fish never found in rivers. It was more probably a Barbel, in Latin called Barbus; or it might be of the Sturgeon tribe, which likewise has beard-like appendages, and is found in the Don.--E.
The river Tanais, at this place, is as broad as the Seine at Paris; and before arriving on its banks, we had passed many goodly waters full of fish: but the rude Tartars know not now to catch them, neither do they hold fish in any estimation, unless large enough to feed a company. This river is the eastern limit of Russia, and arises from certain marshes which extend to the northern ocean; and it discharges itself in the south, into a large sea of 700 miles extent, before falling into the Euxine; and all the rivers we had passed ran with a full stream in the same direction. Beyond this place the Tartars advance no farther to the north, and they were now, about the first of August, beginning to return into the south; and they have another village somewhat lower down the river, where passengers are ferried over in winter. At this time the people were reaping their rye. Wheat does not succeed in their soil, but they have abundance of millet. The Russian women attire their heads like those in our country; and they ornament their gowns with furs of different kinds, from about the knees downwards. The men wear a dress like the Germans, having high crowned conical hats made of felt, like sugar loaves, with sharp points.